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The Peterborough Petes came together under difficult circumstances and won one for a teammate Thursday.

Hunter Garlent sent a text to his teammates after their 5-2 win over Oshawa Generals stating their victory brought a smile to his face.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Hunter's father Rob Garlent died unexpectedly. Hunter was home with family sharing in their grief but also following his teammates.

Steve Lorentz didn't want to focus so much on scoring the winning goal to snap a 33-game scoring drought.

“I'm more fired up about the win we got for Hunter and his family,” Lorentz said. “He gave us a text before the game and it fired us up.”

Petes head coach Jody Hull said he read a text to the team before the game which he paraphrased: “Play hard. That's what his dad would have wanted. He was a passionate guy, passionate about hockey. He wanted the guys to play hard.

“After the game he said someone was watching down on on him tonight.”

“It was a tough night. It was emotional,” Hull said.

He admits he worried about how his team might handle the situation and was pleased by their responded.

“When you are faced with this type of adversity I think your true character comes out,” Hull said. “We saw that tonight in 20 guys.”

The Petes built a 2-0 lead only to see it slip away on a pair of Oshawa power play goals by Hunter Smith, the second 4:03 into the third period.

Rather than wilt, Anthony Stefano said players on the bench spoke up about their desire to push through for Garlent.

“We wanted to win it for Hunter,” Stefano said. “We played the game with heavy hearts. We went out and battled every shift for him. We got a text from him after the game saying he watched the game and he was proud and we put a smile on his face. We were really glad to hear that.”

Stefano poked a puck off the stick of a Generals player and Lorentz one-timed it into the open side restoring the lead 5:03 later. The Petes added to the lead at 12:20 as Stephen Nosad's wraparound attempt went popped out to Stefano who stuffed it past goalie Daniel Altshuller. Nick Ritchie scored into an empty net with 0.9 seconds left.

Greg Betzold and Nelson Armstrong staked the Petes to their lead. Betzold got the third or fourth whack in a scramble to open the scoring. Armstrong ripped a power play goal off Brandon Devlin's drop pass with 5:12 left in the second period. Smith got his first late in the period stuffing Cole Cassels rebound by Andrew D'Agostini, whose solid 25-save effort including shorthanded breakaway stops on Scott Laughton and Cassels. Smith tied it by deflecting Chris Carlisle's point shot.

The Petes are close to securing a playoff spot for the first time in four years. They sit sixth in the Eastern Conference 13 points ahead of ninth place Niagara IceDogs and 15 in front of Belleville Bulls.